When A Man Comes Around
by Farmageddon
Summary: Spin off , stand alone ,from Running With Metal. Bikes, violence, some resolution to long standing issues of Mitch and his daughter. Rated M for language and descriptions of Century, and general stuff.


**  
I wanted this to fit in with Running With Metal . But it doesn't for me , so I thought I'd try it as a stand-alone.**

**If you haven't read Running With Metal, it's very complex . So here's the least you need to know: Cameron wins over Skynet before Judgement Day kicks off. Skynet researches and develops a human-AI interface with coma patients. Mitch is an Ex-Hells Angels Vice-President . He's an "Ex" because he's now bringing up his daughter Natalie who was shot and paralysed by a rival gang member. Skynet gets caught up in a game of nuclear chess with a rival intelligence. In the future Natalie wouldn't stand a chance when the ground war begins. Skynet gives Natalie the option of transferring her consciousness into a 900 Series Interface. She accepts. She is sent back in time to prevent her father being killed. She is part of a Special Forces unit made up of Cameron, The Connor's, Derek Reese and a few other characters. Like I said complex , and running deep.**

**I'm looking forward to getting on with First Impressions, but I want to write this out first.  
I guess I miss riding my bike.**

**Thank you for all your reviews so far. Let me know what you think of this story.**

* * *

**_  
"On this day a soul will know everything it has ever done, and everything it has left undone."_**

**_ "You know what? They are so fucking devious, instead of arguing , they ask you questions. Oh they pretend they haven't a clue, but they know most of the answers , and Mitch, man- they can wait years for you to figure out why they even asked in the first place. Remember : Metal never gets angry, it is so damn, patient, and it's always trying to teach you things, and if it's not doing that, it's either trying to kill you or someone else. Don't get too close, yeh, that's my advice. There's two Judgement Days: One the sky burns, you about know this one already. But , number two's your own fucking personal epiphany moment. That's when a machine reminds you of something really important you did or didn't do . Might be five , ten fucked-up years back in your life. Out of nowhere it turns up, no warning, when you are up to your neck in shit , and says:" I told you if you did that , things would turn like this." Metal bastards"_**

**_Derek Reese_**

* * *

_  
In a "Safe"house somewhere in New Mexico_

_Mitch had been walking down the hall when Cameron stopped him and touched his arm. She stared at him until she registered the faintest nod and movement of his eyes,_

**_"She needs you to talk to her, and I think , you need to talk about this as well. It's not easy, I know how this goes." Her expression had conveyed a kind of exasperation arising from years of living close with humans_**

**_" She _is**_** your daughter, she's out in the garages. Maybe she needs some help fixing her bike? **"_

* * *

Mitch walked over to the corrugated iron garages . On the concrete , beside the rear wheel his older "daughter" sat cross legged. She was adjusting the chain on her bike. The Honda Fireblade made him think of a giant orange and yellow scorpion, somehow frozen in a puddle of rising, shimmering desert heat.

"Hi , How you doing?"

"I'm fine ", absorbed in activity , she carried on tightening Drive Chain Adjuster with a spanner .

There was just the hint of the frailest smile before she span the back wheel an listened as the chain ran around with the sprocket. This was Nats playing hard to get.

Mitch came nearer to listen , then pronounced, "Bearings seem fine. You've covered some miles . Your tyres OK ?"

"The tyres have approximately one thousand eight hundred miles left in them under reasonable usage. Probably only six hundred if I take it to its limits." She span the wheel again. " Listen can you hear that ?

"No, everything sounds normal to me."

* * *

"There" she says. "There" and touches the wheel to stop it it spinning. "One of the teeth has worn more than others, it must have been a flaw in the production process. Here come and look."

She released the locking bolt, slackened the chain, with a screwdriver she deftly slipped the link, pushed out the pin and separated the chain into two halves. The whole procedure took about thirty seconds.

As Mitch crouched down next to her . She now looked at him in exactly the same she had as a child ,when he was about to explain something , or she'd listen to him.

She tapped the top sprocket tooth with edge of her fingernail. When Mitch looked carefully he could see the tooth had rounded end where it should have been pointed shape like a star

" I can't detect anything else , I've cleaned the injectors, adjusted a few nuts and bolts, its just this one tooth on the back sprocket. "

"I've seen worse" said Mitch. "Should be good for a bit."

"I'll ask Daniel to order up a replacement."

She threaded the chain back over the sprocket and linked it together , and began re tightening the assembly . Her fingers seemed to be moving and flowing - weaving was the word that came to Mitch's mind .

* * *

When Nats had finished, she respectfully cleaned each tool with the rag and put it in its place in the tool roll. This how he'd taught her, when they'd been messing with bikes out in the yard together when she was little.

She put the roll away under the seat, closed the seat then looked at Mitch "Dad- Mitch", A pair of blue eyes held his own, "you ever been on the back of one of these?"

She was grinning at him and her eyes lit up with amusement . He'd seen this expression in the faces of some of his former colleagues who had bought "fast plastic" to play with, besides owning Harley's.

"Erm Nats , I make a bad pillion, really ". He said standing up shaking his hands out in front of him.

"Oh come on one ride up the Canyon Road and out onto the highway. There's something I need to show you. I cleared it with John earlier, it's OK."

* * *

Five minutes later Mitch was perched on what looked like the arch of a stylised orange and yellow scorpion's tail. There was a vestigial seat and padding. The bike was pointing towards New Canyon Road. His hands felt and gripped what seemed to be grab-bars under the passenger seat. He found he was breathing heavily inside the helmet she had insisted he wear. Nats snicked into first gear and gently pulled away, She was picking a route between the pot holes tarmac out onto the main road. He noted she never put her foot down once to balance the bike. Then they were turning left and out onto Canyon Road.

There is a point where a bike and rider become one. This can happen at relatively low speeds. It is all to do with fluidity of movement, and the seamless transition between straight lines and corners. Nats piloted them through rock-solid entrances and exits to corners. What Mitch didn't see was her thousands of micro-movements on throttle and brakes. Nor was he aware the extent to which she was calculating his mass and responses as they leaned into corners.

Once she had built a correct model of his potential responses, and was sure of his confidence in her, she slowed on a straight, lifted the visor on her helmet. The tarmac was new and smooth.

"Do you me want to open it up a bit?"

Into the thuddering air Mitch yelled "Not sure-Yes!"

"Put your hands around my waist , relax , lean with me, just go with what I'm doing."

She put her visor down and felt his hands wrap around her stomach . She cogged the bike down into second gear , and let out the clutch .

The exhaust screamed as the engine responded and arced up through the rev range. Mitch felt like his stomach had been punched out left half a mile back down the road. Suddenly "there were no wheels" just forward motion the bike moved swiftly up through the gears and the white lines blurred as the air around them turned to liquid . A force was trying to slide him off the back of the bike. As his forearms pressed into daughter's waist he became aware that she had the hardest set of abdominal "muscles" imaginable. The bike was changing up into sixth, the slipstream banged into his helmet as he glanced over her shoulder- they were pulling nearly a hundred and sixty miles an hour, a corner was rapidly approaching.

Nats hauled the brakes and used the gears to slow them down , then the bike leaned,and kept on leaning over, a fraction before either the foot pegs or fairing touched down. She held the line and accelerated out of the bend pulling them upright again.

Somewhere on the next straight before the corner, Mitch slipped to a place in his mind where there was no-thing, a sense of weightless, timeless forward motion , the howl of exhaust and liquid flowing air .

If he had a religion this would have been his point of communion. . As the bike rose through the gears he climbed the ladder to his own personal Nirvana. Then , there was no ladder.

* * *

In the lay-by on the highway Mitch gently placed his helmet on the bike seat, drew a packet of cigarettes out of his leather Jacket , he shakily put one to his mouth and flicked the wheel on his Zippo lighter.

His daughter scowled at him.

"Hey I don't smoke that much, sometimes I need one. And before you say anything I've already had the lecture from Sarah , Ok."

"Does Mom know you are smoking again? She used to really give you grief when I was little. I remember that she used to hide your cigarettes at the back of the cereal cupboard and tell you she'd forgot where they were?"

"Yeh she still does, or rather did until we moved here...." That was about two months ago for me , Nats, two months before all this happened, you know its hard for me to," he paused trying to find the appropriate word, " process this stuff ."

"You mean get you head round it"

"Yeh, I mean that." He looked at his daughter for a long time. Her eyebrows narrowed to ask the big "why". Then her eyes became seemed to say- go on ask.

Mitch plucked up the courage : "So what do you do in this future of yours?"

As she began to tell him his eyes widened, Natillie's descriptions were punctuated by Mitch spluttering out- "Seriously , you did that all by yourself, ... That is amazing... I would never have guessed, You flew in what !"... Natalie seemed to become more confident as she reeled off the list of her achievements.

"Dad that's not really what you are asking me is it? That's not what's this is about." Mitch realised he was talking to a grown woman, not just his daughter. Her expression said, "come on, just ask me the question that's been running around in your head for weeks."

Then irreversibly it came out: "You Ok Nats, I mean as you are, now?"

"I'm good ." She stared back at him and her look conveyed total honesty.

" Look its easier to show you, give me one of those cigarettes please" . He was about to protest when she said.

'Please just give me one."

He passed her the packet and the lighter

She lit it up as she inhaled some of the smoke came down her nostrils, the rest she held inside her before blowing it out of her mouth.

"Not lungs: oxygen intake, filters , storage, and, in my evacuation cycle I'm going to be spitting brown sludge all over the place. " nice ." Radiation can damage me, but I don't die of cancer from this kind of crap . You might though"

She paused and looked at him with a questioning vulnerability. "OK it goes like this:"

" Dad, you don't just fit a new metal spine into a human , it doesn't work like that . I got the whole thing, tip of my toes to top of my metal cranium. We call it the full Endo, that's short for metal endoskeleton. Machines, are thorough, they, that's 'we' I guess, never fit second best. I got the full combat chassis, its bullet proof, nuclear power cells and enough software to run a small continent . Half the stuff I can't even figure out how to use. The Machines thought I might just need it sometime ."

Nat's looked to him for a response, she dropped her half smoked cigarette and crushed it out.

"Hey Dad, remember we used to try to hit that rock in the sea out on the beach at West Cape? You always said I'd be able to do it next time we came back? Each year we went out there, I got a nearer , but I never actually got to hit the rock. See that boulder, how far would you say?"

Mitch , squinted out into the desert. "Say three hundred yards away" was a prominent lump of rock jutting out of an otherwise featureless plain.

Natalie picked up apiece of sandstone the size of a baseball and suddenly she hurled . Mitch couldn't follow , seconds later a cloud of dust plumed upwards from the centre of the boulder and a the sound exploded , echoing back like artillery.

"267.8 Metres, to be less than precise"

Mitch whistled . "Remind me never to borrow your bike without asking" , the corners of his mouth broke a smile.

* * *

"So what is it want to show me? "

Natalie reached into her jacket and held out a printed image. There was a bearded man, could have been one of a hundred of Mitch's former contacts and associates.

"Daniel found him for me, do you recognise him?"

Suddenly it was as if the image had a life of its own, part of him wanted to drop the damn thing on the tarmac, but his hand wouldn't let go. This was the image of man who had shot Natalie in the back and put her in chair, a metal wheel chair for what he thought was going to be the rest of her life.

"Is he still alive?"

"Yes he is. I haven't dealt with him, yet, if that's what you are asking?"

"You going to?"

"Not sure."

"But you could?"

"Easily, and the rest of the Banditos if I choose . They fitted full tracking , surveillance , infiltration and combat systems," she laughed and shook her head, "I was thirteen at the time, they couldn't figure out how your average teenage girl could possibly get through the rest of her life without it.

She came and stood next to him and rubbed the small of his back as she spoke, despite the heat under his leather jacket his Tee-shirt was cold with sweat.

At sixteen, , I got the full Tech Com Special Forces upgrade, weapons control, escape evasion models, flight simulation even an upgrade on interrogation research files,the lite version though, believe me you don't want the whole thing, its fairly gross.

Mitch looked at her puzzled, "Interrogation ?"

"Yeh , its kind of a drag, but we get The Grays in for interrogation. There are networks of humans who collaborate with he 81's - Grey's ", she explained - "sometimes Greys to talk to us , other times they don't, well not straight away so we interrogate them. Saves lives . "

"Oh yeh The Greys,. Ok." Mitch stroked his beard , this was a lot to take in.

* * *

'My questions to you now" Natalie asked quietly as if still considering the question whilst she was speaking

"Thing is Dad, when you weren't there, in the future, it seemed to me like you were still out there, somewhere. I always imaged I was asking you what should I do. Cameron said it was normal and you and mum were always going to be the big part of my consciousness . "

" So, question time for you, and here's one I've always wanted to ask you: Dad, .If I am capable of confronting the man that shot me in the back and put me as six year old child in a wheelchair , then why not? It would be a kind of resolution for all of us- You mum and me, "

There was definitely something missing from Nat's expression. Maybe it wasn't human weakness, or fear.

Mitch inhaled deeply, "Do you need this resolving Natalie, for yourself ."

"Yes I do ." She slipped her arm around his waist and pulled him tight, "and I think you do as well."

She spoke out into the desert . "Dad..do you believe in Fate, because, you know time works itself out at a lot of levels, all at once,

"What do you mean?"

Well that man ?"

"Yeh?"

"It's actually one of our mission parameters to, shall we say bring him in. Think about it , the moment he chose to pull that trigger and put a six year old girl in the chair for what he thought was the going rest of her natural life, that's when he stumbled into our timeline,our mission. From them on, he just fell deeper into it Right now he's running across the border, arms for drugs, that's where The Greys were first recruited. But there's more to it than that."

"The Fate bit ? He's got me coming back at him from the future , in full combat chassis . I mean, no one expects this kind of shit to happen them do they. I mean that's serious Karma, isn't it?"

"That is some serious Karma Nats"

She broke off to ring Daniel. When she ended the call she formulated an expression Mitch could easily read.

"You know where this man is don't you, this is what that what we are doing right now now isn't it. I'm part of the mission parameters? ?

"You always were , Your my father. His name, its Michael Perez, and right now he's on... heading down from Santa Fe with fifty thousand dollars worth of 9mm . Except wer're setting him up This was off the books, what he thinks is a nice little chunk to his retirement fund. Natalie showed Mitch the map in the clear plastic of her tank bag. She touched it with a dry strand of grass so as no to leave any finger marks. He's here. We can be here, in an hour , it'll be dusk. This is where we take him off the road. Do you want this?"

"OK, " Mitch took a deep breath "Let's do it, I' come with you, be there for you, it's the least I can do". He'd said it. When you do the silent boom is all sartorial echo , Fate realigning every damn bit of the history of the future along the path you've just chosen to go down.

* * *

For Perez It all happened too quick. One minute he was twenty three miles away from fifty thousand dollars under his seats, the road ahead was empty, the haze had a pink glow, the air was cooling, and the first stars were tracing paths in the night sky. He was pissed because the electric winder in the window had jammed open again. Then he'd slammed the brakes and his tyres were squealing. Shit ! .

There was a blond girl in a leather jacket standing sideways on to him like shed just walked out of the desert into the middle of the road. She was calmly standing there.

He found himself inhaling tyre smoke, and then Perez gave a huge sigh of relief when his brain caught up enough to realised the front his car stopped a few feet from the girls hips. The next thing his overwrought senses registered was his windshield being ripped out , flolded and thrown into the he rear seat of his car. The girl had tiger-crawled up over the bonnet and , in through space where the shield had been , and was now sitting next to him, calmly staring at him. She had these intense blue eyes. All she said from then on , In her best monotone (specially reserved for situations like this:) "Hello , again, Michael Perez". She tilted her head to one side to examine him. (According to Cameron, a highly effective thing to do in such a situation ) . " Right now Michael , I want you take a few deep breaths, stay calm and when you are sure you can drive safely , turn next left the exit , DO IT, now."

The exit had a sign : Danger Do Not Enter.

When they reached the end of the track, which became an abandoned tarmaced viewing point , half of which had fallen over the cliff edge , Perez saw Mitch standing next to the cooling Fireblade. It was nearly dark. Natalie reached over, switched the engine off and took the keys. This was like waking up in hell.

All she said was "Get Out." He didn't get out. So she did and slammed the door.

The next thing his car groaned as it was being lifted and rolled onto its roof, then over again back onto its wheels. Perez was now sitting in a car a few yards away from the edge. The cab was full of broken glass and there were no windows left in the car.

"Get out." Perez'z hands had frozen on the wheel.

Mitch put on his best Badass warm smile. It all came back to him- he hadn't done this stuff for a few years : "You really want to get out that car man , you remember those telescopes, the ones you used to put the dime in when you were a kid? If you crawl to the edge so very carefully , you can just make one of out . It's oh, about three hundred feet down there, and the safety wall and the rest of concrete benches way below where I'm standing l. It's really unstable strata you know.

Perez fumbled and climbed out of the battered car. Predictably he was holding a gun and shaking . A black , short barrelled Smith and Wesson .38 was pointing at Natalie and she put her hands on her hips and shook her head.

" Wouldn't do that , you've already shot her once in her lifetime,. You unload that into her tonight and you're are really going to piss her off . "

Perez swung the revolver at Mitch. ,Before the iron sights made him a target, Nats was right there in front of Perez's face and end of the barrel was touching the centre her forehead. That's when Perez learnt there was no point in trying to phase metal. He was almost relieved as Gently Natalie lowered his hands and took the revolver from him.

"Please come and sit down." she said.

Perez sat uncomfortably next to Mitch on one of the remaining concrete benches dabbing at his forehead where a shard of windscreen glass had cut into it, Nats sat opposite, whilst Mitch laid the history of his future and all our futures on him. In the silence that enveloped them Perez could hear was Mitch's voice and the sound of stones trickling down the hillside .

Mitch leaned forward, and rested hands together and looked at nothing in particular. "You know the bastard of this, for you, Perez, , and she's only just given me this information, you're not really even Bandito are you? You're fucking CIA . This is arms running , insurgency stuff , using them for cover. So , to get in, you shoot my daughter in the back ? Then what? Rapid promotion from Prospect up the command structure?

Perez closes his eyes and nods, a big , bad moon is rising over the mountains behind Mitch.

" That's my only daughter, the same one sitting in front of you now. Lemme explain. After you shot her and paralysed her from the waist down, she goes on to do really well with her life in the future. She's a cyborg now , What is they fitted you with when you were thirteen Natille?

" A hyper alloy combat chassis. "

That's it , my daughter in the future, is fitted with a hyper alloy combat chassis, and you know what?She makes me so fucking proud. This whole planet burns, yet she survives a nuclear war . She tells me in the future she's part of this big military family, about the only sane bastards left on the planet.

"Get this : They specialise in tracking down and taking out killer cyborgs."

"In normal life she's in some kind of snatch squad. She can fly aircraft as well, what is you've flown sweetheart?"

"Black Hawk, Mirage, and Aurora 2."

"Did you hear that? my daughter, pilot of the Aurora 2 no less ."

"I co-piloted it once, Dad, and only up to Mach 4.2, Totally subspace."

Mitch carries on. "Oh, and then my little girl passes selection to become part of an elite time travelling special forces unit which is why she's sitting back here in 2112 talking to you. They're trying to figure out how to stop what's worth keeping of the the human race from burning in the next global apocalypse . Which I'm sure you will agree is a Goddamn noble thing to do with your life. You can nod along with me on this if you like. You got anything you want to say?"

Perez looked at Natalie for a long time. He gulped: "What can I say, I'm sorry."

"Michael, sorry , that's never going to be enough is it? This is -Deep Time , payback stuff, its not us paying you back, were all players in the game."

Mitch turned to look at him full on. "You want to know your future Perez? Tell him Natalie : She's got all your files."

Natalie took the equivalent of a deep breath: "Well, you get to do pretty much what you are doing now. run guns and provide intelligence for the enemy, The other killer cyborgs dad mentioned ? They infiltrate and take over the CIA. They take over your networks in preparation for the ground war. You end up working for them. as long as you do this, the 81's keep you alive . Then it starts , you watch Armageddon unfold. They tell you your family will be safe. For few years it runs smooth, then one day you fuck up big time. Guess what they do to you?

"Kill me?" Mumbled Perez

"No, they didn't kill you. See in my time the bad Machines built these highly efficient death camps, running night and day. They are full of all the good men women and children you help put in there. People like you are responsible for exterminating the human race"

"When you fuck up, the Machines burn this bar code into your right arm with a laser , when they've done this they push you in through the inner gates at Century . You bar code reads different to all the rest. Anyone who reads bar code, and most of them do in there , know you are a collaborator and what they call a Grey. At first you think you can handle it, but they really hate you, the little kids throw sharps and spit at you . By then they've rounded up what is left of you family because whatever agreements you've had are null and void, and your family are in there with you."

"Do they know why they call collaborators "Greys" in Century Michael ? Because one night , not straight away the Night Sentry like this pretty basic T600 detects a disturbance, goes walk about, That's when these good people, tie you with rag, shove a sock in in your mouth , cut you here and here, you bleed nearly to death with a bits of filthy mattress soaking it all up so as not to make a mess on their floor . When you are untied it looks like a bad try at suicide. You bleed Grey"

"You are still alive ,shallow breathing in the morning , but because you're not going to make it The Detail is instructed to load you into incinerator No3 along with the rest of the carcasses, you lie there for a few hours bodies piling on top , and if you don't suffocate under them you burn when the ignition system fires up . Within days the same thing happens to your kids."

Perez face crumpled, he looked like he was about to cry. In a soft voice Natalie went on to offer him the best option she could.

"Michael ,I can offer you shorter, but much better future. One your family and kids don't get dragged into a death camp because of what you do now and in the future . My Big Bro: he's kind of philosophical-deep but really cool with it, he loves kids by the way , he's driving over to pick you up from here, and talk with you. You tell him your current contacts , the command structures , all the cache's, the dumps, the RV's, all projected actions, and you tell him everything, and I promise he won't hurt you. We already know most of the stuff anyway. He's really patient and he's never unecessarily cruel. Then, when you've finished talking you'll know all there is to know about yourself , and, ' IT' will be really quick, you have my word . Agreed?"

Perez just stared straight ahead, and blinked as he nodded his head.

"That's good, he's on his way, I'll check where he is right now, for you."

Mitch looked out at the big hungry moon. Fireflies were crisscrossing its face like erratic tracer fire. A cool breeze was flowing in . Perez had begun shivering violently next to him. "You know what man, see those flies? Guess some get to only live a single night. Would you say they know how make the most of it?" For second he held Perez's gaze and nodded slowly . Then Mitch looked away. "You ride's here now , so long." He held out his hand for Perez to shake . It was the last human touch Perez ever felt. Headlights were bouncing down the dirt track towards them.


End file.
